1 They  * 5:1–20 Mt 8:28–34; Lk 8:26–39 came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes.  * 5:1 Some mss read Gadarenes; other mss read Gergesenes2 As soon as he got out of the boat, a man with an unclean  * 5:2 2Co 6:17 spirit  * 5:2 Lk 11:24 came out of the tombs  * 5:2 Jn 5:28 and met him. 3 He lived in the tombs,  * 5:3 Lk 23:53 and no one was able to restrain him anymore — not even with a chain  * 5:3 Mk 15:1  —  4 because he often had been bound with shackles and chains, but had torn the chains apart and smashed  * 5:4 Rm 16:20; Rv 2:27 the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue  * 5:4 Jms 3:7–8 him. 5 Night  * 5:5 Jn 9:4 and day among the tombs  * 5:5 Lk 23:53 and on the mountains,  * 5:5 Mt 4:8 he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and knelt down before him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice, "What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son  * 5:7 Jn 5:19; Heb 1:2 of the Most High God?  * 5:7 Ps 78:35 I beg you before God, don’t torment  * 5:7 Rv 20:10 me! " 8 For he had told him, "Come out of the man, you unclean* 5:8 2Co 6:17spirit! "* 5:8 Lk 11:24

9 "What is your name? " he asked him.

"My name is Legion,"  * 5:9 Mt 26:53; Lk 8:30 he answered him, "because we are many." 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the region.

11 A large herd of pigs  * 5:11 Mt 7:6; 8:30–32; Lk 8:32–33; 15:15–16 was there, feeding  * 5:11 Jn 21:15 on the hillside. 12 The demons  * 5:12 Other mss read All the demons begged him, "Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them." 13 So he gave them permission, and the unclean  * 5:13 2Co 6:17 spirits  * 5:13 Lk 11:24 came out and entered the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned there.

14 The men who tended them ran off  * 5:14 Jms 4:7 and reported it in the town and the countryside, and people went to see what had happened.